Friday, June 6, 2008

And That Happened

Red Sox 7, Rays 1: Fisticuffsmanship! Unlike most baseball fights, however, this one had some real punching. It was kicked off when Coco Crisp got beaned, but ultimately Jonny Gomes -- who was in the dugout at the time -- got the most blows in of anyone, raining blows down on Coco as Dioner Navarro held him down. Expect Gomes to see more Rays games via HD-TV than from the inside of a stadium for the foreseeable future.

The fallout of this fight could be pretty massive. Coco is going to get suspended for sure, and that combined with (a) Ellsbury leaving the game with a strained wrist; (b) Manny doing something to his hamstring; and (c) Papi being out already is going to make the Red Sox outfield something of a mess for a while. Casey at first, Youkilis in right, Drew in center and, um, who again in left and at DH?

Phillies 5, Reds 0: I loved Philadelphia's blue hats. Phillies fans loved Cole Hamels' three hit shutout. Almost exactly this time last year, the baseball world was stoked for Homer Bailey's debut. His first big league action of this year was less celebrated. There are more really good Reds' message boards out there than you might imagine, and the majority of the posters on just about all of them would throw Baily in with a Griffey or Dunn salary dump if it meant getting something back other than a phantom PTBNL.

Braves 7, Marlins 5: Chipper Jones hit home run number 400 off of Ricky Nolasco. Number 1 came off of Josias Manzanill; number 100 off of Kevin Tapani; number 200 off of Darryl Kile; and number 300 off of Sterling Hitchcock. No reason. Just felt like it. Oh, and he went 4-5 to raise his average to .418 and I gots to tell ya, I'm starting to think -- just a little bit mind you -- that he could pull it off.

Yankees 8, Blue Jays 8: Jason Giambi has long been a hell of a ballplayer, but he has quite the reputation as a party guy as well. Just last month he discussed his fast livin', and about how he's getting to the age where he can't really get away with that anymore. I know the feeling. I live in mortal fear of hangovers these days because they hit you a hundred times harder at 35 than they did at 25, and when you're 35, you usually have to work the next morning. I mention all of this because there was a pretty good chance that on Wednesday night, Giambi knew he didn't have to work yesterday. His foot hurt and he had missed a game and was likely going to miss another one. You hate to assume this sort of thing, but people are creatures of habit, and you really have to wonder if he didn't view his impending day off as a license to tip back a couple of extra ones the night before. Wouldn't you? Of course you would.

But ask yourself: could you wake up the next day and make it in to work when your boss unexpectedly calls you in? Even then, could you nail a major presentation for investors with no prep? No way. Well, Giambi did the baseball equivalent of that yesterday when he hit that pinch hit homer to win the game in the bottom of the ninth, and for my own peculiar purposes, I sort of hope he was nursing a humdinger of a hangover when he did it.

Nats 10, Cards 9: Hey, two teams you can abbreviate! Elijah Dukes hit his own walkoff homer -- this one in the 10th, and he went 4-6 with with 4 RBI too. While there's only a chance that Giambi hit the ball out with a hangover, we know for certain that Dukes was loaded on 100-proof crazy when he hit his, so consider me more impressed. This was the back end of a double dip, by the way, and the Cards took that one 4-1.

Pirates 4, Astros 3: I hadn't noticed until now, but Jason Bay is back to being Jason Bay (.292/.410/.542). Unfortunately for Houston, the Astros are still the Astros, and they lost their eighth game in the last ten. Astro run totals in those games: 6-8-1-2-1-1-1-2-2-3.

White Sox 6, Royals 2: Kansas City has won 3 of 19. Bet you don't remember the five game winning streak they had before that stretch. In other news, Rany Jazayerli's decision to pick this season to start his dedicated Royals blog is sort of like someone deciding to jump head first into the subprime market last fall.

Orioles 3, Twins 2: You know you're getting old and out of touch when you glance at an Orioles box score, see "G. Olson" and absently think "man, I wonder if his curve is still holdin' up?"

Rangers 9, Indians 4: No one scored in double digits? The game took an even three hours? What have you done with my Rangers and Indians? By the way, Ron Washington, Josh Hamilton went 0-4 and you still scored nine runs. How about giving him a day off once in a while? It's hotter than the Devil's anvil in Texas, and a big boy like that is going to get tired come late July if you don't let him ride the pine once in a while.

Cubs 5, Dodgers 4: The OBP's of last night's Cubs' lineup: .325, .412, .338, .418, .408, .375, .279, .391. Of the four lower than .375, three of those guys are slugging over .500. The remaining one -- .279 -- is Jim Edmonds. So basically they have one hole in their everyday lineup, and even that one is theoretically capable of going on an All-Star level tear (even if I think he's done). That's why they have the best record in baseball, and why I said the other day that they look like the 90s-vintage Yankees' teams. Just tough outs all around.

3 comments:

And on the bright side: The DBacks didn't lose, sometimes off days aren't so bad. And its a strange sensation to actually root for the Cubs, definitely not one that I like or am proud of but they can beat the Dodgers all they want.

Jays' loss yesterday will likely be the most memorable of this season. Up 7-6 in the bottom of 8th, 2 on & 2 out, Wilkerson made what appeared to be a game saving jumping ( not quite leaping )catch at the wall in right centre....Jays scratch out another in top of 9th, 8-6, Yanks fans are booing....Jays get first two hitters out in bottom of 9th, A Rod hits a chopper that just barely, barely, eludes Rolen & Eckstein....the rest was on the highlights....

I rarely get demonstrative watching sports but I found myself cheering out loud during the 8th & 9th yesterday....brutal, nasty loss.

Dre -- totally agree. The start of that fight was hilarious. Coco made a slick move to dodge that first punch, which definitely looked like Shields' pitching motion. 90mph knuckles into Coco's jaw would have made his stay on the sidelines much longer.